Smurfing
From Computing and Software Wiki
Smurfing or a Smurf Attack is a form of Denial-of-Service attack where an attacker floods a target with ICMP echo (ping) traffic.
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What is Smurfing?
Smurfing is a banking industry term used to describe the act of splitting up a large financial transaction into several smaller ones to avoid scrutiny from regulators. "Smurfing" is originally derived from a cartoon, The Smurfs, which consisted of a large society of many small individuals. The coining of the term is attributed to Miami-based lawyer, Gregory Baldwin in the 1980s.
Smurging or a Smurf Attack in the context of network security describes the act of many small ICMP pings being used to create very large network traffic congestion.
How does a Smurf Attack take place?
In order for a Smurf Attack to take place there are three parties which need to be considered. First is the attack who orcastrates the attack. Second is the amplifier, who is usually another victim of the attack, and lastly, the target.
The Attacker
The Amplifier
The Target
Prevention
References
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/smurf.html http://www.pentics.net/denial-of-service/white-papers/smurf.cgi http://www.academ.com/nanog/oct1997/smurfing/sld001.htm http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~meinkej/inss690/cummins/cummins.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurf_attack http://www.networkworld.com/archive/1999b/0222gearhead.html http://www-arc.com/sara/cve/Possible_DoS_problem.html